


Break A Leg

by chipofsilver



Category: Ben Hardy - Fandom, Bohemian Rhapsody - Fandom, Joe Mazzello - Fandom, Male Friends - Fandom, Queen - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Ballet, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, Slow Burn, Young!Ben, and it’s been sitting in the kitchen for 14 hours and you don’t know why it’s doing anything, because youre stupid, bi!Joe, but aren’t we all, but you forgot to plug the slow cooker in, does making out count as smut? idk, ememies to friends to lovers, ever heard of a slow cooker, gay!Ben, just like them, like college age, like slow slow burn, no need for extensive ballet knowledge dw I don’t know heck about ballet either really, romeo and juliet - Freeform, thank u for considering to read this love you, theyre ballet dancers at a ballet school after graduating high school and hate each other’s guts, yeah that, young!Joe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-02-18 03:22:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21521044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chipofsilver/pseuds/chipofsilver
Summary: The teacher looked up again, her eyes looking between Ben and Joe, the former sucking in a sharp breath that only got Joe more on edge. Either he had the main role, or he had none at all.“And, our Romeo will be..”Please please please not him, please-“Ben Hardy.”Ben seemingly grew to be a meter taller than he already was, while Joe deflated, looking at the ground as any anger was shut off. No role. No main part in a show. That had never happened, not *once* in his four years at the school.“And your Juliet shall be..”Tensioned thickened beyond belief, as the teacher swallowed, knowing the hell that was about to break loose.“Joseph Mazzello.”...What?
Relationships: Joe Mazzello/Ben Hardy
Comments: 33
Kudos: 97





	1. SCENE I. BALLET ACADEMY. THE CLASSROOM.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy (late) Birthday Babs! I thought bringing our baby to life would maybe be a cool present so here you go 🥺💕

Joe was nervous, so much was obvious as his foot tapped on the ground in a soundless, frenzied beat only he knew. Well, and Ben Hardy, the taller blonde next to him, who’d started tapping his own foot in a matching beat, with that shit eating grin on his face that only got Joemore furious, stopping his foot as every single tap of Ben’s only got him more enraged. 

“Thank you.” The boy that Joe hated with a passion next to him told him with a self-satisfied grin that Joe would sometimes just love to punch off of his face, this close to kicking Ben’s goddamned shin, as Ben seemed just entirely at peace with getting Joe to stop, baiting him to get his way in the end. Joe balled a fist, looking away, taking a step away, and hearing Ben still scoff from his side. Joe turned towards him again, opening his mouth ready to give him a piece of his fucking mind, not even caring if he’d end up fighting again like years ago when they were littler, he was ready to go- when of course, in perfect timing before all hell broke loose as usual, his ballet teacher stepped inside the room with the results that all students had come together in the main practice hall to hear for, and Ben looked over at Joe again with an unimpressed eyebrow raise, pushing Joe’s jaw up with two fingers and placing a single one over his lips, Joe near shaking with anger and Ben gave him a condescending smile and a “shhh”. 

You could almost hear the way Joe’s teeth grinded as he turned his head back to the front, entirely tense, both fists balled up at his side, feeling as though either his aorta would pop or he’d be at Ben’s throat within a second, either way blood would be spilled. Neither thing happened as Joe made himself swallow up his anger, knowing he had to calm his temper, while Ben assumed his natural position of giving fuck all fucks, hands in his pockets, entirely comfortable in his being, as Joe got into fourth position just to make a point. 

He didn’t even know why the boy, who’d been infuriating him ever since he joined the school a year later than Joe, always seized each and every opportunity to annoy Joe- as Ben had been late, and still took the liberty to walk right across the full room, right next to Joe, just. To. Piss. Him. Off. You‘d argue that Joe wasn’t the complete angel either- well, you‘d argue they were both in the wrong, picking on each other for nothing more than the sake of it, and for not being the only ones who didn’t- but Joe didn’t see it, and Ben didn’t see it. That was one thing they had in common, except for being the best dancers of the upper full time classes- they were stubborn, and always striving to be better than the other.

Tension was extra high today, as the clipboard the teacher was holding did not solely hold the attendance sheet, but today, a cast list. One that none of the students were allowed to see before- as, the last time the teacher had just hung it out on the blackboard in the hall, it had resulted in yet another loud, verbal fight between Joe and Ben. 

Only one sharp, shushing sound sufficed to get the whole class to shut up with their quiet murmurs about who would be Romeo, who would be Juliet, who deserved it most, who least- competitive ballet dancers can be beasts sometimes.  
Joe tried not to get his foot tapping again as the teacher seemed to drag attendance out into infinity, huffing out an annoyed breath at just hearing the name “Hardy”. His teacher raised an eyebrow at the sound that came from a clearly worked up Joe. “Nice to hear that you’re here too, Joseph.” She spoke up, crossing him off the list with a demonstrative wide swish of her hand, and Joe went a bright red in embarrassed anger, looking down in a feeble attempt to hide his red face, and to not catch a glimpse of what he knew was currently a wide shiteating grin forming on Ben’s face. Don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry went through Joe’s head, not sad but angry tears threatening to prick at the back of his eyes as he felt his throat tie up, and miraculously, his body behaved. 

“Well then, to get to the main event today before anyone loses their temper..” his teacher sighed, and Joe bit the inside of his cheek, mentally advising his teacher not to make his Ben-rage turn on her as it wouldn’t be pretty. Taking the quietest, biggest breath he could, Joe forced himself to calm down again. Ben’s the one with the bad temper, not you, don’t get two bad reputations at the same time he told himself, shooting a look over at Ben who looked quite amused by Joe’s behavior, catching his eye on accident as the boy was looking back at him, and Joe looked away again in shame. “Let’s start with the supporting roles, because as you know patience is a virtue..” the teacher went on, and Joe was almost shaking in frustration, crossing his arms behind his back and holding his own arms tight enough to leave red blotches on his arms, but atleast some of his frustration was set on the back burner as he sat through the announcements, a few whispered “yes!”s and a few disappointed faces around him as the people called got their assigned paper sheets. 

Joe’s mental checklist of roles was running thin. No role for him so far. Or for Ben. The teacher removed the next sheet from her clipboard, and Joe swallowed hard. The Romeo. It was either this or nothing. The teacher looked up again, her eyes looking between Ben and Joe, the former sucking in a sharp breath that only got Joe more on edge. Either he had the main role, or he had none at all. 

“And, our Romeo will be..”

Please please please not him, please-

“Ben Hardy.” 

Ben seemingly grew to be a meter taller than he already was, while Joe deflated, looking at the ground as any anger was shut off. No role. No main part in a show. That had never happened, not *once* in his four years at the school. 

Ben Hardy got the lead, and Joe got nothing. Ben fucking Hardy got the fucking lead, and Joe fucking got nothing.  
Anger was back in an instant as Joe blew his chest up, looking over at Ben, the thief, the role-stealer with the most deadly gaze he had with which he could send a hamster into cardiac arrest with, probably, if he’d wanted to. Ben only smiled at him, ever so condescending. “Well, better luck next time.” He told Joe, with a fake-pitying pout, patting his shoulder, and Joe pushed his hand off in an instant. “Get your shovels off of me.” He hissed at him quietly, throwing the usual insult at Ben’s hand, but it didn’t faze Ben, no, not today, where he finally took not just the main role, but *any* role from Joe. He was feeling bloody great.

The fakest “ahem” went through the room, reminding the two that they should atleast have the decency not to take Juliet’s spotlight, as she was yet to be announced. The remaining three unassigned girls were holding each other’s hands, huddled close in fake support for one another- though they’d all kill to get the role, hoping to get it for themselves, all the “oh you deserve it so much though!!” just hot air. 

“And your Juliet shall be..”

Tensioned thickened beyond belief, as the teacher swallowed, knowing the hell that was about to break loose.

“Joseph Mazzello.” 

...

What?

“Huh?” Joe blurted out before he knew anything else to say, not really processing what just happened. The teacher sighed, looking ahead at the two totally shocked boys as the ones behind them already started snickering, and the girls to her right looked just as shocked. “Not as Juliet, most obviously. As Julius.” The teacher added, and finally the information trickled through into Joe’s brain as his eyes widened. “W-what- madame-“ he started, and his teacher handed him the sheet, Joe staring down at it, his name printed down on the paper, under the cast name of Julius Capulet. 

His eyes flew further down to the list of dances. Pas de deux with Romeo. With Ben Hardy. With the guy with that sour look on his face as he sighed in utter frustration and annoyance next to Joe. “I- with him- you can’t be serious-“ Joe blurted out again, and his teacher frowned as she slowly had it with Joe’s attitude today. “Yes, I am.” She spoke loud and sharp, getting the snickering classroom back in line, only the girl’s three fuming stares at Joe, and said disheveled Joe remaining in emotion. 

“I’m sure you’re well aware I don’t take your careers and what will get you further lightly, aren’t you? So do you still think I’m joking?” She raised a singular warning eyebrow, but Joe’s feelings powered over discipline and behavior. “No, Madame, but-“ - “Would you care to stop opposing me, Joe, you are an excellent dancer just like Ben, and I don’t think my eyes have ever failed me about seeing how two dancers would fit together.” His teacher cut him off, sick of the discussions. “I’ve been thinking about this for some time and gotten approval for the changed role. It’s my final decision, you best appreciate it, or you can be a tree in our next show.” A final eyebrow raise followed, ending the discussion as she walked out of the room again, with a “Practice at nine, as usual.” 

The girls were still shooting Joe angry looks from the side as the boys broke into quiet laughter with each other again, and as Joe glanced up at Ben unsurely he half expected a shit eating grin, but nothing the like. Rather, the slightly bigger boy- both in height and physique- turned towards him. “You better not fuck this up just because you’re whiny you didn’t get the male lead. I expect a good performance to work with, so bring it.”He muttered, almost threateningly, and Joe raised an eyebrow, arms crossed over his chest. 

“You didn’t get shit, Hardy, main role my ass, only chose you as Romeo because you actually have the big stupid looks to look like you’d take the poison.” He shot back, and Ben exhaled through his nose, looking angry now rather than annoyed. “Don’t be late to practice.” Joe said as a finishing statement, sure of himself that he’d won the situation until Ben gave him one of those gross grins again that joe absolutely despised. “Don’t be mad if I am, gotta practice for our shag scene afterall hm?” Ben teased, walking away laughing as joe basically fumed in anger about Ben just always trying his hardest to embarrass him. Joe let out a frustrated, strangled sound from the back of his throat before storming off through the other door.


	2. ACT I. PROLOGUE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new friend doth introduced, and an old friend turned foe‘s story..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter titles are just a Hommage to the style Shakespeare wrote them in the written play for Romeo and Juliet, so it’s more of a little joke, nothing to take serious regarding “acts” and stuff ok have fun reading!

“Maybe I’ll just be a tree.” Joe sighed. 

He pouted at the camera, Rami looking up from his work with a confused huh, into his own camera on the face time call. “Or maybe I’ll just drop out!” Joe shrugged, and Rami sighed with a smile, shaking his head. “You love ballet, you’re just overreacting.” He replied, and Joe sighed too. “But I don’t love Ben Hardy!” He replied, dragging his hands over his face. 

The two best friends were on one of their usual FaceTime calls, calling basically whenever they were both free. Rami was at a theater school and currently revising his own script while Joe looked over his casting papers again, the two of them not always talking much but enjoying each other’s silent presence nonetheless. They’d been in the same courses and class throughout high school, theater nerds through and through, but their interests had drifted apart, Rami staying true to theater while Joe persued his hobby of ballet on an academic level- but their friendship has stayed just as strong. 

“I don’t know man, with how you obsess over him…” Rami teased, and Joe shot him an unimpressed look, that Rami only laughed at. “Maybe this will help! Maybe you guys will finally end your dumb feud.” He grinned, but Joe only scoffed. “He drives me insane, I can’t stay near him for two minutes without him trying to get me to explode.” He shook his head, and Rami raised an unconvinced eyebrow. “You texted me ‘talk to you later’ an hour ago when you went to assembly, and came back ten minutes ago. You survived it, didn’t you?” He asked, Joe scoffing again and rolling his eyes theatrically, holding a hand to his forehead. “Only barely!” 

Rami rolled his eyes too, with a fond laugh. “Ballet kids are even worse than theatre kids, who would’ve thought.” He teased, and Joe pouted at the screen, crossing his arms. “You love me.” He replied, and Rami shook his head. “And you love to hate.” He shot back, giving Joe an askew grin. “What are you, Shakespeare?” Joe laughed again, and Rami sighed. “Only because you two are acting like Lord Capulet and Montague. It’s ridiculous, I know you don’t even know what got you fighting!”

“Yes I do!” Joe insisted, and Rami shot him an unimpressed look. “Do tell.” Joe pouted again. “..well I know why I should hate him, he’s a prick, I’m glad we’re fighting.” He replied, and Rami frowned. “You’re glad to be mad off your ass every time he does as much as smile at you?” – “An infuriating smile. He’s a dick.” Joe still insisted, but Rami didn’t give in. “Reckon maybe he’s only a dick because you’re being a dick to him too?” He replied.  
“He started it!” Joe shot back, throwing his hands up in defense, and Rami rolled his eyes fondly. 

“Ah yes. And how?” He chuckled, a bit amused by the display Joe was giving him as the boy laid back on his bed, clearly frustrated over nothing. Joe sighed. “Well- like everyone else. But, he’s just worse. A hypocrite.” He pouted slightly again, and Rami only shot him an unconvinced look back, not even needing words to say that he found the statement in itself hypocritical.

Going into ballet school at 17, all of the new students were still somewhat small. The thing was, Joe‘s body had decided it‘s growthspurts had made their final goodbye tour through his body at sixteen, while the other boys still grew, and grew.. and suddenly Joe didn’t fit the male ballet measurements for his age anymore, half a head under the benchmark. 

Yet instead of giving up, hanging the ballet shoes on the nail he was too short to reach, it was only an incentive for him to strive to be better- which the other boys really, really didn’t like. And what do you do when someone else is better than you, and you’re a prick? You tease them. You bully them. You dunk their self confidence in the trash right in front of their eyes. And Ben walked right into it. 

Walking *tall* into it. Way over the male ballet measurements, over any ballet measurements really. Broad and tall, wide shouldered and goddamn handsome- uh, in the girl‘s eyes of course, not Joe‘s. Joe might’ve been bi, but he had standards. Well, then again he didn’t completely understand all the jazz about Ben being too big for ballet. Who cared, really? 

Joe wouldn’t have cared, wouldn’t have been what you would argue to be hypocritical in the sense of mocking Ben just like the others did with both Ben and him, if Ben hadn’t been a fucking dick like he had been. Joe would never admit it now, but when the younger first joined the school, Joe was impressed by how damn talented he was, applying for the class Joe was in after about two months in the starter class, clearly more fit to be in the upper class than the beginning introductory year to the school (although, of course even the first year required lots of experience and expertise already, and you’d be lucky to get into the school at all if you didn’t have some recommendation letter from an important teacher or fancy dance group, or a few awards on your shelves. And money.). 

Ben was younger than all of them, by a few months to some, by almost two years to others- so, when suddenly that 17 year old “too-tall-too-broad” beefcake walked into class with the teacher to be introduced, a few of the boys really couldn’t fully stifle a laugh. Joe hadn’t laughed, had only rolled his eyes at the boys behind him to himself, and was the only one in the room to actually give Ben a genuine smile. The biggest mistake of his life, Joe would argue now, a bit overdramatically. 

Maybe Joe was a little bit of a teachers pet through trying so hard in every corner he could, or maybe the teacher saw his smile at Ben, but apparently in that moment she’d decided that the two physical outcasts would become best friends, directing Ben to go stand next to Joe, and taking him aside later to ask him to show Ben the facility and maybe befriend him a bit. Maybe, and if you got him on a late drunk party night he might’ve even admitted it, Joe thought that too, had hoped for them to be friends, to have someone inside school too, not just friends like Rami who he only saw one or two times throughout the week. 

But again, of course, what else would happen but what always did. Two outcasts weren’t automatically best friends, and movies and books and *people* were stupid to assume so. Two outcasts automatically became joined targets, that’s what had happened. And seemingly, Ben wanted none of it- Joe would’ve showed him how he dealed with the teasing, but Ben rather just stayed away from Joe as far as possible, not wanting to be “the freak with the other freak”. He wanted to be the less outcast outcast, Joe guessed, and that’s when the mutual insults started. 

You couldn’t even really blame Ben, though (well, Joe could, with all his chest). Changing rooms already aren’t fun if you’re the only odd one out, getting snickers from every corner as soon as you even dare to take your shirt off an inch- but it becomes worse when you’re not the only one. 

It had maybe been a week, or two, since Ben had joined their class, on a Saturday morning where everyone was in the changing room for the first and only collective ballet lesson of the day- everyone except Ben. Joe was getting on his shirt at the moment, ignoring the usual hushed conversations he knew were half about him between the other boys who had all outgrown him by now, even if not by much, as he folded his normal shirt away on the end of the bench. 

There was still space to his left, to his right only the end of the bench as he found himself, as always, on the edge of the room, while the rest of the boys took distance, even if only by a meter. It was only recently that the space to his left was to be filled with Ben, the boy who only with his smiles could already cheer Joe up from a possibly bad day, make him bite back a smile too, at which Ben only smiled more when he saw Joe trying to keep a grin down. 

Now, though, it had been ten minutes, Joe still waiting on Ben, going a little slower as usual, to drag it out as he put his shirt in his bag, rearranged his street shoes to stand perfectly symmetrical, played with a loose string on his sports bag.. when someone knocked on the door from outside. 

Joe looked up, and so did most of the rest of the boys, and a smile went on Joe’s face as he heard Ben’s voice from outside. “Is this the men’s second year?” his voice came out muffled from behind the door, Joe answering before anyone else could, or wanted to. “Yep, it’s us!” he replied, getting a weird look from the other boys already, one of who turned to face the door as it slowly opened, Ben peeking his head inside, before catching Joe’s eye and coming fully inside with a matching smile- dropping as the other boy, taller than Joe, slightly shorter than Ben, stepped half in his way to get his attention. 

“You know, at this school we like to be on time.” He spoke sharply, with an expression on his face that made Ben take a step back, eyebrows furrowed at the near condescending tone in the boy’s voice. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t find the room, it was a different one than usual-“ he started to explain himself as the guy just stepped closer again, Ben’s eyebrows furrowing more, until he felt a hand on his arm, Joe leading him towards the spot he’d saved for Ben.

“Don’t mind them, I can just show you the rooms for our schedules later.” he promised Ben with a smile, and with a bit of newfound confidence he shot a look back at the other guy, as usually he’d just ignore all the teasing until the boys got bored of it, but he wanted to defend Ben, who shot him a slight smile even- until the scoff from behind made them both turn again.

“Sure he’s not gonna end up at the girls’ then?” The boy shot back, condescending smirk and raised eyebrow ever present as Joe huffed out an annoyed breath, looking away from Ben. He’d gone a while without the dumb direct insults from anyone, and had hoped to keep that up as long as possible to not look like an idiot in front of Ben. He turned back around to his bag as the other boys laughed along, Joe going red in embarrassment in front of Ben, keeping his stare glued to his bag. 

Ben’s eyebrows furrowed, looking between the guys and Joe, picking up on the dynamic going on in the group as much as he could with this short display as he put a hand on Joe’s back, in an attempt to show he was on his side, but Joe shrugged his hand away, and Ben stood back a little, his chest stinging mutedly at the annoyed face Joe was wearing- but apparently, the boy behind him didn’t have enough yet as his laugh cut clear through the rest of the noise. 

“Oh look, how cute! What else are you gonna show him Joe, your bedroom? Freak pair..” he scoffed, and both Ben and Joe froze as the room broke more into laughter, Ben not even realizing the steps back he took, his heart hammering in his chest as his eyes were wide, caught entirely off guard, and in a panic, and with how Joe’s jaw tightened in almost rage at the comment, something in Ben’s mind flicked a switch.

He de-tensed, not knowing himself if it was real or faked, but the panic hammering in his chest told him otherwise, and as his brain scrambled for some kind of come back or defense mechanism, he only heard himself say the words once they were out of his mouth. “Wouldn’t you be too short to even read the room tags next to the doors to show me around?” He scoffed, freezing again as the room quieted down, his face falling as he realized what he’d said, and he caught the short moment of confusion, of hurt, in Joe’s eyes as he looked up at him, a ‘Why would you?’, a ‘Why you?’. 

Suddenly, Joe’s expression hardened, and Ben swallowed as the rest of the room caught up, amused laughter coming from each boy there at what was happening in front of their eyes, almost exited for what Joe was gonna say back, exited to see their targets target each other. “As long as you don’t break the door out of its hinges when walking inside.” He replied, a cold scoff as he walked out of the changing room and into the practice room, the boys behind Ben still laughing at it all as the latter stood there, biting the inside of his cheek and balling his fist, until he got a not-so-friendly pat on the shoulder by the one guy as everyone walked out past him, already ready while Ben still had to get dressed, breaking out of his frozen state and hurrying to catch up.

“Hey.” Joe heard the whisper behind him, and he rolled his eyes, continuing their task at the barre, until he felt a tap against his shoulder from behind, and he looked back at Ben, with an angry look in his eyes under which Ben’s sorry words crumbled. Joe looked back ahead as Ben didn’t say anything, and Ben swallowed as he tried with another “I’m sorry. I really am.”, his voice a little louder now, and Joe’s knuckles turned white in his grip at the barre as his teacher cleared her throat. 

“Please, focus on your task, boys. À gauche.” She warned them, and Joe shot Ben the same warning look as he turned around to do the same thing with his left side, as his teacher had told the class. “You heard her.” He told Ben, obviously annoyed even if it might’ve been a little childish, Ben turning around too as the teacher had told them, with a curious burn behind his eyes that he didn’t let wander to the front of them. 

As he did, Joe just stared at the back of his head, and he didn’t know why, but his anger kept simmering in his stomach. Today should’ve been a good day, good practice before he’d wanted to show Ben around more, as promised, maybe have lunch together, blow his mind a little with American customs like he had been for the past week (“Where’s the beans- what do you MEAN there are no beans?!”) and learn more about the 17 year old- but he supposed, now he’d learned enough. 

The way Ben’s expression changed at the other boy’s last comment has told him enough about him. The way he’d dropped cold and joined in with the same comments that Joe had maybe hoped he’d get over better with Ben as his friend. Instead, apparently Ben was just like the others, as everyone, but just that little bit worse because Joe had actually hoped about him, had started to trust him, and maybe Joe was overthinking but apparently Ben was homophobic, too, judging by the way his expression turned at the particular bedroom comment, maybe he didn’t want to be associated with someone like Joe, judging by how fast he’d recoiled from any amity towards Joe at all, even if Joe wasn’t out to anyone anyway and it was just some dumb joke. It was one single comment, why was Ben so upset about it? And why was Joe even so upset about Ben being upset? It didn’t matter. Ben didn’t matter. What mattered now was the damn exercise, Joe told himself, casting his gaze back down and focusing properly.

Practice was over, and Joe had his things packed up, shoulder bag slung over him again, rolling his eyes as he walked down the hall alone, on his way back to his dorm room- but apparently, not all too alone as the footsteps behind him caught up quicker. Joe turned around, with a dismissive face, and Ben almost bumped into him at the sudden stop, quickly taking a step back again nervously. 

“Hey, um..” he started, swallowing at the raised eyebrow Joe gave him that probably wasn’t very good. “Which room are we at tomorrow, could you show me still before heading to the dorms?” He asked, biting his nip nervously as Joe didn’t reply, only looked him up and down before he finally spoke, not knowing really what possessed him to be such an ass as he looked Ben dead and cold in the eye again, but not stopping it, either.

“I’d tell you to just follow the noise to find the room, but you probably cant hear anything over how you stomp through the halls.” He scoffed, turned on his heel, and left, leaving Ben shocked, bright red, and embarrassed in the hall. Joe’s annoyance simmered over the weekend then, and when Ben realized on the next Monday that Joe was going to keep being a prick, well, he decided he wouldn’t let himself be made a target. 

“So why don’t you just reconcile, your whole argument is so dumb.” Rami rolled his eyes, and Joe shot him a look. “It’s not as dam easy as that. Why would I trust him again? Besides, he’s a prick to anyone, and a damn homophobe..” he muttered, and Rami rolled his eyes. “You’re really gonna assume that by his reaction to a dumb bedroom joke? I thought you said yourself it wasn’t significant.” He replied, and Joe sighed, okay, maybe he didn’t really think Ben was homophobic.  
“It’s different.” He still insisted, and Rami sighed. “As long as you can promise me there will be a performance in the end worth driving into town for me for, and not a goddamn MMA fight on stage.” He grinned, and Joe rolled his eyes with his own fond smile. “Fuck you.” He replied, and Rami chuckled. “Get your ass to class before you become a tree.” He replied, and Joe rolled his eyes again. “Fuck you too.” Rami cooed at him, Joe grinning again as he ended the call, atleast in a bit of a better mood as he went back to practice. 

It didn’t last awfully long. Ben was late, as per usual, and while that already annoyed Joe- couldn’t Ben just take one thing serious in his life?- it annoyed him more that the teacher just dismissed the fact, and waved for Ben to go next to Joe. “Ugh.” Joe made a point to say loud enough for Ben to hear as he went behind him, and continued his warming up exercise on the barre. 

Ben ignored the sound, and tried to warm up too, but he was out of breath from running to class, and barely had any space on the barre- until he lost balance, bumping forwards into Joe. It wasn’t much by any means, one shoulder bumping into the other, no hurt done- but certainly harm. Joe turned around, with raging fire suddenly in his eyes, and holding his shoulder as Ben straightened up again. 

“Watch what you’re fucking doing!” Joe spat at him, louder than intended as the class turned towards the two, amused, the teacher not so much. Ben put his hands up in defense. “I’m sorry, it wasn’t on purpose, don’t make a bloody scene.” He replied, shrugging nonchalantly, and Joe blew up, shoving him back. “What do you- fucking mean make a scene, I’m not the one making one!” He replied, now loudly and intended so, but he stopped in his tracks as his teacher spoke up.

“Joseph Mazzello!” She shouted, and the room went silent, Joe going pale as he realized what he had been doing, and at what volume. He turned towards the teacher, regret evident on his face that Ben only scoffed at, serves him right he thought. “I think you’d rather go back to your room and calm down, and watch the ballet recording I gave you already. Who knows, maybe you’ll even grab the faint nuance of Romeo and Juliet having CHEMISTRY, not shouting at each other.” His teacher added, and Joe went bright red in embarrassment, looking down and mumbling a “yes, madame” as he tried to hide the angry and embarrassed tears stinging at the back of his eyes, his fists balled as he took no time after the teachers dismissal to get into the changing room, grab his bag, and speedway back to his room, angrily wiping the one or two tears that managed to break loose from his face away before he finally arrived at his room, slamming the door shut behind him and sinking to the floor against it, tears going heavier now as he let out an angry scream, tearing off his bag from his shoulders and throwing it somewhere, sitting there for who knew how long.


	3. SCENE III. A dormroom in Montague’s house.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Be my Romeo,  
> Please be my voice in this world.  
> I can't sing the songs that you sing,   
> I can't find the gorgeous words.   
> Will you be my Romeo,   
> My go-go Romeo?

“I don’t know how I’m gonna suppress the urge to strangle him.” Ben grumbled as he watched Romeo and Juliet kiss on screen.

The boy on the other line laughed, shaking his head on the other side of the phone all the two were currently on as Ben sighed, dropping back into his pillows with his laptop propped up on his thighs. “Now when did you get into BDSM?” Gwil teases him, and actually managed to get a small chuckle out of Ben too, who rolled his eyes at the comment from the man calling him from the UK. 

Just as Joe and Rami, Ben had a best friend too, only that his was overseas: Gwilym Lee, best friend since high school, had studied with Ben and lived in Manchester, growing up and staying there. Ben had gotten this scholarship to the academy here in New York then, moving there at only 17 years old after lots of back and forth with his mum, and now they only saw each other over FaceTime or over Christmas, but it was enough for their friendship to persist. Gwil, in turn, had only moved streets to get his own place, visiting a dance academy in Manchester.

“Oh I’m sure he’d look just adorable under my fingertips though..” Gwil pondered with a teasing grin that Ben could practically feel across the ocean, knowing Gwil only said that to tease Ben with the imagination- though there wasn’t even anything to tease about, Ben rolled his eyes with a huffed our breath. “There’s nothing adorable about him, asshat would probably bite your fuckin’ fingers or something.” He scoffed, and Gwil shook his head. 

“Oh he looked quite gorgeous in Swan Lake though, didn’t he?” He said genuinely this time, remembering the recording of their academy performance Ben had made sure to get him a digital copy of, as they always exchanged their performances. Ben wasn’t all too happy though as he scoffed, grumbling a “Dont mention Swan Lake.” into the phone, and Gwil rolled his eyes. “Cmon, Ben, you broke your leg, stop being so salty about him getting lead and acknowledge how amazing you did to catch up in that short a time.” He tried to argue, but got no response from the pouty Ben on the other line. Gwil sighed again. “Then atleast acknowledge that you were the most beautiful supporting role I’ve ever seen.” He heard Ben snort a laugh on the other side, which made Gwil grin too. “That’s gay.” He got as an answer this time, and Gwil laughed. “Says you!” 

“I’m just surprised he wasn’t the swan in Swan Lake.” Ben snorted, and this time Gwil rolled his eyes for real. “You know that’s about as hypocritical as you could get. Make fun of.. his hair color or something instead.” He snorted the last bit with a laugh, and Ben sighed. “No, redheads are cute.” He replied, going bright red as he realized what he’d said as Gwil started laughing. “Not him!!” He shouted into the phone, Gwil still laughing. 

“Oh yeah? So when you called me that first day, all exited over the cute boy in your class who was so nice to you.. did that Joseph drop out and we’re talking about a different one here?” He teased Ben, who groaned, dragging a hand over his face in a feeble attempt to turn his blush down. “People get unattractive damn quick, Gwil.” He grumbled in reply, just staring ahead at the screen.

“Hmm, I think he’s pretty cute actually.” Gwil replied with a grin on the other line that Ben couldn’t see, but still knew was there. “Why don’t you come over and shag him then.” He huffed out in reply, and Gwil laughed on the other side. “Oh no, that’s your job now Romeo” he snorted, and Ben rolled his eyes. 

“Don’t worry, I’m getting enough.” He huffed, and Gwil hummed on the other side. “When was the last time you had a boyfriend again?” He asked Ben with a teasing chuckle, and Ben shook his head just slightly again, only half fond right now of the guy who had a girlfriend over there himself. “Okay, let’s concentrate back on this, it’s my homework afterall.” He replied, and Gwil only hummed a chuckle again. 

Ben blew out a nervous breath, scratching his fingernails over the single backpack strap sling over his shoulder, a nervous habit, and a piece of paper he held in the other hand, constantly glancing down and back up, checking the number on the paper and the ones next to the doors as he walked down the hall. 

This must have been the right floor atleast, but damn this academy was bigger than he’d thought. He’d been too nervous to ask anyone to show him where the room was, the slip of paper that he’d hurriedly noted the room number down on from his acceptance papers being his only guide at the moment, as he certainly didn’t look like a second year student, maybe more like fourth year. Or a really, super young assistance teacher. 

In reality, Ben was only 17, and nervous as hell as he searched for his class as he knew he was late- by a few minutes for the day, but by a few weeks for the semester. Having just moved here for this school about a month ago, he’d started off in the academy’s first grade, but when he basically outddanced the experience level of the other sixteen to seventeen year olds, who had to look up at him both in the literal sense and in level (even the teacher had to get about a fifteen degree angle going to look him in the eyes), he’d been transferred to second grade. And today was his first day.

Now, he stood in front of the door of his class, checking if his note matched with the door for about the third time now, before stuffing the crumpled piece of paper back in his pocket, and knocking on the door tentatively as he heard multiple voices behind it, letting out a relieved breath as seemingly the class seemed busy, as he opened the door slowly, peering in, and immediately being greeted by the teacher coming towards the door. 

“Ah, yes, Ben Jones?” She asked, holding a hand out for him to shake as the students seemed busy warming up, not really taking notice of the boy coming in behind them. “Hardy.” Ben replied with a nervous chuckle, shaking her hand, and the teacher’s eyebrows furrowed. “Hardy Jones?” She asked, and Ben shook his head, nerves knocking in his chest. “Uh, no, uh, B-Ben Hardy, I meant.” He nodded nervously to bring his point across, and the teacher dropped his hand again.

“Yes, Ben Hardy. Right this way.” She showed him with a gesture to step out and past the practicing students, and cleared her voice, instantly getting everyone’s attention and silence. Ben wasn’t surprised but still blinked at the sudden obedience as the class gathered to a bit more of a group. “Good morning, students.” The teacher spoke, getting no reply, which seemed to be part of the classroom etiquette too, Ben guessed, though the many people looking at him with raised eyebrows, maybe even amused looks probably weren’t how they were supposed to treat each other.

“I have a new student to introduce to you, this is Ben.. Hardy, yes?” She went on, and as one student in the back somewhere actually snorted a quiet laugh, Ben decided to tape his gaze to the floor. Just because he was literally looking down at the students, again, didn’t mean he didn’t feel the hot red embarrassment shoot into his cheeks. He knew he was too tall, alright? 

“Yes.” He replied quietly, and his view was suddenly filled with two sheets of paper the teacher was holding out to him, that Ben took, looking up again. “Join the other students warming up now, and we will be discussing details about your studying here after the lesson.” She nodded at him as a form of dismissal, and Ben stood there a little lost still as the students went back to their previous activities, until the teacher placed a hand on his shoulder, warming up a little now and smiling at him. 

“Welcome to the academy, Mr. Hardy. And I think there’s still space next to Mr. Mazzello on the barre.” She gestured into a direction, and as Ben followed the way she was pointing with his eyes, he did indeed find a free space where a much smaller boy was currently stretching his leg up on the barre, holding it close to himself, and giving his knee a little kiss as a stretch check that Ben couldn’t help his smile at. 

“Thank you.” He nodded, feeling a bit more relaxed now, especially as attention wasn’t on him anymore, as everyone was committed to their own thing again when he weaseled his way through the crowd awkwardly until he was next to the decisively tiny boy who was still facing away from him in his lumbar stretch.   
“Uh, hey there, is there still space here-“ he started his question, and the “for me” died in his throat as the boy let his leg slide off of the barre to face Ben, turning around.

Oh gosh.

OH FUCK.

In front of Ben stood just about the most stunning boy he‘d ever seen, with the most beautiful eyes, gorgeous auburn red hair that must’ve just been a little sun-bleached by the summer break framing his face down to his forehead, the most hypnotizing fingers drifting through said hair and tucking a stray strand back, and with the most beautiful smile Ben must’ve ever seen.

“So you’re the new guy, huh? I’m Joseph.” 

AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL VOICE TOO, HOLY SHIT.

Ben was already mentally getting out his pink glittery diary that he didn’t have and doodling Joseph’s name with his own last name and hearts in pink glittery pen, and it took him a second to realize Joseph’s face, GORGEOUS goddamn face was twisting into awkward confusion, and that he was holding a hand out to Ben. Ben froze up, surfacing from his trance with his face even redder as he shook Joseph’s hand, those fucking HANDS Jesus Christ.

“I- yep, haha, that’s me, B-Ben Hardy, new boy.” He huffed out awkwardly, wishing he could punch himself in the face about his incredible eloquence. He let go of Joseph’s hand embarrassedly as he realized his handshake was going a bit too long, glueing his hands inside the pockets of his black sweatpants- oh god, had sweatpants and a loose shirt had been a bad choice? 

He began overthinking his outfit again, he hadn’t unpacked yet and this was all he had at the moment, but in comparison to Joseph’s formfitted tank and leggings, and oh GOD his upper arms, Ben felt severely misdressed. He nervously but naturally assumed first position, trying to force a smile, but when Joseph smiled back, Ben couldn’t stop smiling himself either, trying to bite it back now actually. 

Yes, after that practice was over, and after the things Joseph had whispered to him had made him stifle a dumb giggle a few times, Ben had half the mind that he was in love with the boy who’s head he was SO tempted to rest his own on. Maybe Ben was just an easy crusher, having tucked his hands under his arms because every time his arm brushed Joseph’s, his face turned bright red again, but could you blame him, he thought. Joseph was just lovely, and was currently showing him around with just the right amount of excitement that got Ben much more relaxed to be in a new class, nevermind being on a whole new continent. 

“So where are you from? Exactly, I mean, the accent does give most of it away.” Joseph chuckled, hands leisurely in the pockets of his sweatpants he’d changed into, with a just-right-fitting hoodie thrown on on top. Ben had to reply a little louder as for now, their little tour was over, and they entered the more busy cafeteria for lunch. 

“Well, I grew up in Dorset, as Ben *Jones*,” he put a goofy intonation on the discarded surname, getting a giggle out of Joe, “but we moved to Manchester when I was about twelve, I’d say? People tell me I still have my Dorset accent though.” He chuckled, glad that this time as he spoke up, he didn’t blurt out an entire word vomit as he had before, and he’d been happy to let Joseph lead the conversation so far. 

“And then I got a scholarship here ‘cause of a good recommendation.” He shrugged, smiled, and Joseph looked at him, mouth agape. “Oh my god, really, from who?” He asked, and Ben pondered for a moment, he didn’t want to brag, but as he was about to speak up, someone from the side gave Joseph a wave, greeting him with a “Hey Joe!”, the boy greeting back with a smile. Ben had a questioning smile on his face now, brushing the words he’d just gathered aside. 

“Just Joe?” He asked, not wanting to address Joseph weirdly or unusually, and the boy nodded. “Yeah, everyone calls me Joe. You can too if you wanna, it’s more casual. Joseph just sounded so fancy from a flustered Brit’s mouth.” Ben got a little red, chuckling shyly again as they went to get some food. “Yeah, I suppose.. wait, flustered?” He only get redder as Joe grinned, sticking out a cheeky tongue at him with a wink, and Ben huffed a shy laugh. “You’re a dick, Joe Mazzello.” - “You’re welcome, Jonesy.” 

Ben was laying on his bed, grinning his arse off to the new contact in his phone - “jOsEPh Mazzello” - (they’d exchanged numbers purely so Joe could text Ben about where the different rooms were of *course* nothing else) and he must’ve almost thrown the phone away from himself in shock as a call screen popped up. 

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck-“ he scrambled after the phone, blowing out a relieved breath when it was only Gwil, and not, as he thought, him having accidentally pressed call after staring at the cheekily winking candid picture he saved for Joe for about five minutes now. “Yes?” He breathed out in relief, dropping back into his pillows as his music still played softly from his stereo. 

“Hello to you too.” Gwil snorted from the other line, shaking his head invisible to Ben. “Sorry, just was unexpected.” Ben argued, shifting to lay more comfortable atop his bed, playing absentmindedly with the blanket as his mind threatened to drift off to someone else again. “How was your first day?” Gwil just asked, and Ben felt caught, blushing up. “Normal.” He shot back, and he could almost feel the knowing grin from Gwil, knowing he gave himself away now, Gwil just knew him for too goddamn long. 

“Is that Helpless playing in the background?” Gwil asked with an amused tone, and Ben got redder, if possible, slipping off of the bed to turn the music down quickly. “No?” He tried, and Gwil laughed. “Spill.” He just demanded, and Ben pondered for a second, before sighing- he knew it was no use to lie to Gwil, the guy who’d experienced Ben have plenty a crush. 

Usually there was about two weeks of heavy teenage crushing before he got his shit together, his charm out, and his flirting to front line, finally making a move that wasn’t disastrous(ly gay). “Okay, okay..” he pouted, getting back on the bed for comfort. “His name is Joseph Mazzello, but he told me to call him Joe, and he called me Jonesy once, and he showed me around today, he’s in my class.” He bit his lip, exited at simply the thought of Joe- as mentioned before, hopelessly crushing. 

Of course he got the obligatory “ooooooooo”ing from Gwil, and maybe got a little lost in his explanation about how much he wanted to kiss Joe‘s dimples when he smiled, and out of the one hour phone call it turned out to be, he wasn’t sure if Gwil had even gotten to talk for a quarter of it. Ben breathed out one last theatrical “helpless” to the song that had been forgotten and quietly looping for the entire hour in the background, before turn it off, slinging his bag over his shoulder, and heading to where he was supposed to meet Joe to walk to their class together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To clarify, since I’m really tired and sorry, after this chapter we’re back to the present djdjdj okay love you all thank you for reading and sticking with me <3


	4. Chapter 4 : SCENE IV. A classroom in the academy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, there they are. Assigned partners. Theres no more way around each other now.
> 
> Or is there?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I TOLD YALL THIS FIC ISNT DEADDDDDDD I HOPE YOU ENJOY im genuinely sorry this took so long i had a massive writing block but i hope yall can trust me this time that this thing is getting properly updated now :')

Tuesday mornings were, surprisingly, nice. It was even a little sunny out, light sneaking through the windows past the other buildings surrounding the academy and dipping the room in soft enough light that once the teacher would arrive, she probably didn’t even have to turn on the ceiling lights, Joe thought. She could gladly take her time on this morning, though, as while everyone else was already warming up for the second-busiest day of the week, along with Thursdays, Joe just came in, feeling half asleep, clutching his nice and warm, blue-white striped thermos containing too much coffee and taking another sip to tally into his attempts to wake up fully. Turns out, spending the whole night on your laptop watching different Romeo and Juliette choreographies on YouTube, falling asleep for an hour, and waking up at 3AM to YouTube having autoplayed to an actually pretty interesting documentary about the actor of Sesame Street’s Big Bird wasn’t the best method to wake up fully rested. Joe let out a sigh, shedding his big, warm, cozy scarf and letting it drop somewhere into a corner alongside his sports bag before heading to his favored barre spot, that one where he could put his thermos on the window sill.

There were a few rueful attempts at stretching, and Joe realized even more that he needed to stop kidding himself and just take his laptop to the bed instead of his sofa next time, because he knew exactly well that next time around he would, again, do fuck all to move to his bed and change into proper pajamas. His neck and back weren’t thanking him now, but it wouldn’t be the first time Joe pulled a stick out of his ass before the beginning of the morning lesson. As long as Ben didn’t see, it was fine. If he was gonna be commenting on everything Joe did already, Joe didn’t want to give him an opportunity to do any more of his obnoxious teasing than he already did. It certainly wasn’t hard to avoid Ben at the moment now, though- as he was, as usual, late. If Joe wasn’t occasionally late himself, he would’ve already done everything in his power to convince the teacher that tardiness should be punished. Oh, he didn’t mind the other students being late sometimes, you never know somebody’s story- but Ben was a different thing, he was too infuriating, Joe decided, and was glad he was only thinking it to himself, so he had nobody to call him out on his hypocrisy.

Just as Joe had finally found some form of relaxation, although it took ten minutes to get his muscles in order, and finding the bottom of his thermos, of course the man of the hour stepped in, the door swinging open, welcoming their teacher, plus someone else, inside with him with a big gesture of his arm that Joe wanted nothing more than to stick up Ben’s own ass right now. He let out a frustrated huff as he watched Ben, wearing a towel around his neck, put down his sports water bottle on the window sill on the other wall, the room being on the corner of the building for proper light and atmosphere. That was atleast still what gave Joe a bit of hope today wouldn’t become entirely unbearable, the sun had come out more than when he first came in. As if Ben brought it with him just to flaunt, he thought then, and scoffed again as everyone assembled in something resembling a bit of a loose row system to face the two teachers. “Bonjour, et pardon, I know I’m late, I got held up. Is everyone present? ..Yes, good, alright.” She mumbled to herself, flicking through papers and just throwing a quick look up to check if anybody was missing, Joe still impressed even after a few years of being taught by her that she only ever needed maybe a second or two to check if everyone was there. Incredibly time-efficient, Joe loved it. Another minute had passed for her to sort the papers she was holding, before actually looking up at the awaiting class again. “I won’t be the one teaching you for most of collective practice today, because we’re starting right into choreographing the fight scenes, or to learn our dynamic in an unspecified one, rather, and then build up from that. Madame Platzhalter will be taking care of that- some of you may already know her from Group B. Oh, and we might have to revamp the Groups later, to group together ensemble and background in a more efficient way than how we are distributed right now. The groups will, as usual, return to normal though after R and J, so everyone will be able to continue with their assigned dance partners whenever given, no worries, we won’t be forcing any new pairs.” 

Well, thanks, that worked out super well then, how lucky we are to only have dream pairs, Joe thought to himself, frowning. He felt a bit had on, honestly- as much as he admired or respected the teacher, he still couldn’t fathom what possibly lead her to believe that him and Ben would be a good pair together. She literally had to drag them apart in the hall last year when she made Joe Ben’s understudy instead of his own part, and had to send them to different nurse’s offices across campuses so they wouldn’t kill each other on the way, or with plaster scissors or something. They’d been banned from classes for a small while then. Honestly, sometimes Joe wondered how neither he nor Ben had been kicked from the academy yet. He supposed he was atleast lucky then that apart from his rivalry/archnemesisness with Ben, and outstanding top-of-his-grade ballet skills, he was unobtrusive. Unremarkable. Ouch, brain, that one hurt- what Joe meant to think was that he kept to himself, and was hoping and working hard that his scholastic achievements were a more remarkable fact about him than his.. squabbles with Ben Hardy. 

He decided to start paying attention again before it got him into trouble, and it seemed to be just at the right time as the teacher looked him directly in the eye, while Joe had been staring at her “attentively” while spacing out for the past few. “Alright, now that that’s all settled, you can all continue warming up for five more minutes before you start the training with Madame Platzhalter. No practice sticks for today yet, you’ll just be working on group cooperation. Mr. Mazzello, Mr. Hardy, you both come along with me, please.” Joe’s eyebrows furrowed, shit, had he had another fight with Ben recently that he forgot about or why would she take them aside? They got a little too many to keep track of at times, but that would only ever be at the end of a semester or the preparation of another show, when nerves were extra high. As he followed the teacher and Ben out of the room though, he remembered. Right. The whole Romeo and Julius thing. Great. Woohoo. Oh how he was looking forward to being squashed in the hands of Ben Hardy. The teacher led the way to a remarkably smaller room, but still one with barres and mirrors along the walls. Maybe this was a classroom for the occasional afternoon kid courses? It seemed so, as Joe deposited his bag, water and cozy sleep-replacing scarf into one of the bright pink cubbies next to the door, Ben doing the same next to him. “Good job on making her late this morning.” Joe muttered towards him, and before Ben could retaliate, the teacher spoke up herself. “I’m perfectly capable of being late myself, Joseph, don’t worry, Benjamin had nothing to do with it. Now can we start concentrating or should I make a big deal out of it next time you’re late, too?” She asked, raising an eyebrow, and Joe muttered a “Sorry.” – “It’s fine. Now, take these.” 

She nodded for the boys to come closer again, and handed them both a stack of roughly ten papers each, Joe would say. “That’s your general overview again, the extended one with new information, the scene overviews and where you each come in separately and together, the choreography guidelines- I’ll be going over that with you both soon properly to set them down officially- and some more reference material, as well as your practice timetables.” She pointed at the individual papers of which she had copies herself, looking up at them both again to see if they understood. Joe nodded a little absentmindedly, Ben doing the same as they were studying their time table and practice dates with each other and their other scene partners in particular, the teacher giving them a bit of time to read through. “Any questions? I can only really talk with you both about the papers today, I have terribly much to organize.” She said after a small while, and Joe shot a small look over at Ben who had his bottom lip between his teeth as he read, and Joe looked at the teacher instead. “Uh, yeah.. is the weekend practice thingy, the Sunday one in particular, I mean.. is that super mandatory? Or can I talk to Clare and maybe push it somewhere else where she’s free? Even just later into the afternoon or something, I don’t know how all of this intertwines with your own datebook.” He asked, and the teacher furrowed her eyebrows. “Why? I mean, yes, but these timetables are pretty carefully constructed, and you can’t skip any practices either if it doesn’t fit with your freetime, Joseph, you unfortunately locked yourself into giving up the latter by auditioning for a lead role.” She replied, and Joe tried not to frown. Yeah, I didn’t audition for THIS one though, he thought, but shook the thought for now as it wasn’t what was important.

“Well, it’s just that I visit my mum on Sundays, and.. my dad.” He argued shyly, and heard Ben huff out a laugh next to him. “What the fuck are you laughing at?” Joe muttered grumblingly, and Ben rolled his eyes, looking at him. “Calm down, it’s just, me too. Stop getting offended at everything I do, jeez.” He shook his head, and Joe rolled his eyes himself, looking back at his paper. The teacher looked between them, sighing but deciding to let it be, not wanting to wake the sleeping dog unnecessarily. “Well, if you can both get it cleared with Clare and David, then that shouldn’t be a problem. If you’re visiting your dad with your mom, Joseph, of course that’s something different than just some trivial free time lazing. And of course if you’re spending the weekend with family then that’s good too, Benjamin, I just expect you both to organize it properly, that’s all.” She nodded again, and Joe smiled. “Thank you.” he replies, Ben doing the same, though looking up to ask a question himself now, having flipped through to the choreography sheets. “Is there a deadline for any of this? When do I have to have it down?” He asked, the teacher looking at the sheet herself. “Oh no, that’s okay. Obviously you need to have it down until the actual performance, but for the group revisions, just have enough to work with, we won’t be focusing on the individual dances then anyway, rather on the way every component comes together. I’ll be checking in with both of you from time to time to see how you are doing, or I’ll be here anytime you ask for help or for me to look over what you have, too. You should be able to dance it though by the time we start practicing with the orchestra.” She pointed at a specific date on the bottom of other sheet, and Ben nodded with an “Ah, right, thanks.” again, silence returning. “Any more questions then? I sadly have to get going again, but you have enough instructions to hopefully guide you into something that’ll look like a dance and not like a stage fight.” The teacher told them one last time with a reprimanding raised eyebrow, and then she was already out of the room again, rushing along in quick steps to her next responsibility. The silence that went over the room was more awkward now, Ben looking over at Joe through the corner of his eyes, Joe shooting a look over at Ben’s timetable instead, both waiting for the other to speak up, which Joe ended up doing. “Well, I’m gonna go search for Clare then. Get it all cleared up.” He cleared his throat, Ben furrowing his eyebrows. “And what about practice?” He argued, and Joe drew in a deep breath, unreasonably annoyed but he couldn’t help it, annoyed by the whole Romeo-Julius situation as a whole still. He wondered if that tree offer still stood. “Well, some other time, I guess, we gotta get the time tables right at first, or would you rather have stuff overlap? Go find David or something.” Joe huffed, grabbing his stuff and leaving the room aswell. “Fine by me, I suppose.” Ben muttered at the closed door, rolling his eyes and taking his stuff too, and, being the one out of the two to have actually listened during the first minutes of the morning lessons, he knew where David, as a part of main ensemble in his role as Mercutio, was currently grouped into, making his way just there. Because to anyone’s absolute utter surprise, he was not exactly keen enough on practicing with Joe to argue about it with the latter. He was more than content with not having his day ruined.

Well, yeah. Maybe that strategy was a little bit too good. Every time they were scheduled to have a practice together- which was basically every single day- the excuses got dumber and dumber and more nonexistent each time. “Well I talked with Clare yesterday but she only had very little time so I have to meet her again right now to discuss our practice dates.” – “Yeah, David’s got.. the same thing, same idea. I can’t today.” – “We’ll, uhh.. meet tomorrow then.” – “Sure. Whatever.” ; “Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to warm up today yet. Can’t practice.” – “Ok” (That one had been over text, even though neither were really sure why after all these years they still had each other’s phone numbers, considering they hated each other so much. It was even stranger that neither had bothered to change the contact name and picture until just then. Ben’s stomach had turned when he saw the “cute” candid picture of Joe, trying to suppress how he still remembered literally staring at it like an idiot when he’d first saved it as much as he could. He did NOT have a bloody crush on Joe Mazzello. Ever.)

As it turned out, if there was one thing that Ben and Joe were good at together in teamwork, it was avoiding each other. It had even gotten as precise as to knowing the other’s singular practice habits well enough to avoid the room they were gonna be in, or be out of it before the other arrived. You could say it was almost a choreographed dance on its own. And the rhythm had been perfectly in their favor until about Saturday. Despite all the students having only one collective class in the morning, you could argue it was one of the busiest days of the week at the school. It’s when everybody practiced in their free time when they didn’t really want to under the week, with the tightly packed schedule they all had, and as workshops and the weekly kids and teen courses came in through the whole day, there was hardly any practice room that wasn’t packed. It might have been easier to find a place to comfortably practice if both Ben and Joe weren’t disliked by more than half their class- well, Ben had some friends but they were out grocery shopping together which Ben didn’t have time for today, and Joe had some people who were neutral towards him, but he was apprehensive about making friends here. Rami and his other out of town friends were more than enough for him to keep him feeling not-lonely.

Atleast the fact that they were already warmed up from collective practice gave them the benefit that they didn’t need a room with a barre, so all they needed now was to get creative. There was a smaller room, with only very few mirrors, but it was more than enough for one person to practice. Even better was that it was part of the gym, and all the gym and yoga and step-aerobic and whatever else kind of courses were mostly on Fridays, so it was free game. Ben was already at the gym half of the time, because as much as the comments about his body annoyed him, he knew he was healthy and it was a benefit to his dancing, plus he enjoyed the gym, maybe even sometimes punching his joe-related frustrations out into the slightly worn and battered punching bag. So far he had restrained from printing out a picture of his face and taping it to the bag, though. To be fair, he didn’t have any strangely violent phantasies or whatever against Joe anyway, he wasn’t that kind of guy. Especially not since despite Joe’s stupid wit, Ben was far from pauciloquent himself, he could dish out quite well, and everytime Joe had that utterly stupid looking flustered or angry blush on his face, it was the sweetest feeling Ben knew. There was something about it that made his stomach fill with.. god knows what. Ben deemed it to be that satisfying feeling of victory.

Right now, he had just finished up with his small gym routine. He couldn’t use much of the equipment since some of the rooms with the “stealable” equipment were locked when the gym was not officially in use/in business hours, but the main room with the big equipments like the treadmills and everything was almost always open for enrolled students. And with the little mirror wall segment, and with nobody else being there, it was perfect for some private practice. Ben was extra stretched from his gym warm up now too, so he could get right to it, practicing his form for a few of the Romeo solo moves he’d been considering for his choreos- since, being in fourth year, their penultimate, it was a sort of preparation for their senior year ballet, even though not everyone aimed to go into choreography once they were done with school.

Joe, for example, was looking to be in a continued dancer career, as many of his classmates too. Right now, though, he was looking for a practice room- with little success. Either the rooms he had checked were full, booked, or he got some glare from someone in it that lead him to closing the door and to continue his search elsewhere. He guessed that was fine anyway. He needed a lot of space to figure out his choreography, plus he’d rather have privacy as he experimented with bits of it to try and get in more “masculine” moves. It still bugged Joe, being chosen as Juliet. Yes, he knew, it was “Julius” now, but that didn’t mean he was happy with it. But he also couldn’t bring himself to reject the role, at the very least because of all the stage time he got, it would look very good with the ballet groups representatives and whoever other important persons would show up to the performance. If he brought a good performance at all, that was. He wondered if he could pin it on Ben if all the Pas Des Deux’es were gonna be shit. 

He was muttering quietly to himself, brooding about different aspects of it all, as he absentmindedly pushed the gym door open, still looking down at the papers the teacher had given him on Tuesday as he walked into the main area. It was quiet, he noticed, looking up with a satisfied smile- which fell when he saw Ben in front of the mirrors. Absolutely great, of course the guy would be in the last useable room for practice. Hadn’t Joe seen all his friends heading out earlier? He’d hoped that would’ve meant they took Ben with them, but apparently not. The man in question only shot him an annoyed look before looking back at himself in the mirror. Joe muttered something not-so-neutral to himself before walking past him, to the only other free space in the room where he’d have enough space to practice a little atleast, setting his stuff down. He shot another discreet look at Ben, but the latter was once again fully focused on himself in the mirror. He was wearing in ear headphones anyway, Joe noticed, and then realized he’d be doing the same right now- if he hadn’t fucking forgotten them in his room. Shit. He searched his bag, but no, they really weren’t there. Joe sighed exasperatedly to himself- Ben couldn’t hear it anyway, right? – and pushed his bag back aside. He didn’t *need* music. And he really wasn’t in the mood to take the walk of shame back out of here. 

He groaned to himself again, starting to stretch, doing a few on the ground that allowed him to read over the papers again that he had in front of himself. But when after about ten minutes he still hadn’t managed to read the entire first page, and was now warmed up in all ways imagineable, he groaned to himself again. Yeah, he couldn’t concentrate like this. The lack of music on top of the non-lack of Ben made it impossible to get anything done, and he knew he couldn’t manage to actually get anything done for his solo choreos with Ben in the room. He looked back at the man in question, and found Ben looking at him anyway, a questioning look in his eye. Alright Mister Motherfucker, we can all be passive aggressive. Joe gestured for Ben to take out one of his earbuds, and Ben did so. “So do you actually ever wanna practice together, or no?” Joe asked, standing up to look down at Ben who was currently on the floor, but following Joe in standing up, crossing his arms unimpressed, and taking his other earbud out, too. “Ah yes, because you’ve been begging for it for days.” – “Well I haven’t seen you make any damn effort.” Ben couldn’t help a smirk. “Oh no, I’m usually the one making others beg.” Joe only scoffed, turning back around to try and pack his bag, but Ben spoke up again. “I know you don’t have your headphones and cant concentrate, so you need me.” Joe turned back around, with another scoff. “What, are you stalking me now?” Ben raised an eyebrow, looking unimpressed yet again. “N, you just think out loud. Really disturbing when you’re trying to dance, by the way.” He shot back, and Joe didn’t know what to reply, only getting a little red. Ben grinned again, feeling the victory in his stomach at the sight again, unable to help the smile at it. “All I wanna hear is a pretty please, pretty boy.” Joe got redder now, looking at him angrily. “Not in a million.” Ben only pouted theatrically in response, fake empathy over his face but the satisfaction more than visible in his eyes. Joe frowned. “Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.” he mocked. Ben didn’t respond again, he only held his hand out for Joe to place his own in, giving him an expectant look, a “cmon-i-don’t-have-all-day”. Joe looked at it for a second, skeptically, before letting out an annoyed grunt, stepping closer and placing his hand in Ben’s, who smirked again. “No need to act educated, we have Shakespeare in England too, yknow.” – “Oh? I didn’t think you could read.”

Ben pulled Joe closer to get him into a starting position, but Joe couldn’t help resisting a bit, still looking skeptical, uncomfortable. Ben rolled his eyes and stepped closer himself, and putting his hand on Joe’s waist. The younger man near squirmed away from it, and Ben already started to get more annoyed as h put his hand back on, this time with a bit more grip and impatience, which got him an angry look from Joe. Ben just ignored it, reaching back with his foot to press play on his Bluetooth speaker he had with him, too. The music, just some unspecific ballet music piece, poured in softly, and Ben looked back at Joe again. “Let’s go through the guidelines for the first dance, okay?” – “Sure.” Joe just shrugged, looking uninterested now, and Ben was gonna be annoyed, but honestly, a bored Joe was easier to handle than a feisty one.

They started moving a little, to try and get into rhythm, mostly with each other, and Joe was having big trouble with that. He couldn’t make peace with it. Being lead by Ben, having to admit Ben was maybe actually doing a good enough job, and Ben’s hands all over him, on his waist, his hands, his arms- he felt his chest weirdly tied up, he didn’t like it at all. It was almost a subconscious chase of Joe moving away from Ben’s hands, and Ben trying to chase after him, dropping off little words of complaint to each other “hey, watch out-“, “stop moving away so much-“. They’d moved so much during it by now that they were in an entirely different spot. Ben tried reaching for his waist again, and Joe visibly squirmed away once again, losing contact with Ben, who had felt his annoyance rise too much by now. He almost had Joe cornered with an angry look on his face, trying to pulls him closer again into some space where they could actually dance. “Could you stop trying SO hard to not dance *with* me? This dance isn’t about you!!” Joe only scoffed and looked away, rolling his eyes, wiggling out of Ben’s hands again, “Then stop-“ he started, but his eyes went wide as he tripped over the foot of some equipment behind him, lunging forward to catch him, and Joe, in his surprise, actually holding onto him. The harmonized moment however didn’t last long, as Ben straightened Joe up and immediately let go of him, now looking proper angry. “For fucks sake Joe, I gotta bloody touch you okay, this is a partner dance!” Joe stepped away from him again, this time watching out where he went, and looking at Ben equally angry. “Bloody? You’re gonna make me bloody if you keep half crushing my body with your giant fucking monster hands, watch the fuck out okay?” He spat back, and Ben let out a long, frustrated groan, turning away from Joe and dragging his hands over his face. “Fuck this.” he huffed, walking over to his bag and grabbing a pack of smokes along with his jacket. ”Be back in ten.” he muttered vaguely, already pulling out a lighter and flicking it impatiently to try and light his cigarette. The door slammed close, and Joe felt the anger bubbling in him, sitting down in the corner where his own stuff was, and gulping down a bunch of water to try and calm himself. “Fucking Ben, stupid asshole, big ass hands, fuck off..” he muttered to himself, practicing a limited vocabulary of Ben-related insults while he brooded on the seat of the Triceps Dip machine near his stuff.  
Somehow then, Ben actually managed to calm himself down outside. He wasn’t sure if it was self control or rather the opposite, because both him and Joe had those few specific things they knew they could instantly enrage the other with. And that last one had been one of those, one of the ones that actually kinda hurt Ben, even though that’s of course something he would never, EVER let Joe know. It’s part of why he had come outside, too. The only thing mutually holding back these kind of insults between them was the hypocrisy connected to them, because if Ben’s body was “unfit” for ballet, then so was Joe’s. They were basically on opposite ends of the spectrum here, its like someone had played with polar opposites on a body slider. Regarding body height and muscle atleast. Joe had kind of realized that too as he calmed down in the gym. He wasn’t sure exactly why he targeted Ben’s hands like that all of the sudden, to be honest. It had half slipped out. Yes, he had been uncomfortable with them, but honestly, that was mostly because he hated being touched like that, which of course didn’t get any better if it was by a person he hated just as much. But it wasn’t Ben’s body’s fault, and he knew that. That, however, didn’t mean he couldn’t be mad about the way Ben handled him, because that had been far from gentle. It’s not like Ben was a saint here. 

Speak of the literal devil, Joe heard the gym door open and close again, this time a bit gentler than when Ben left. The latter came around the corner, and Joe took one more sip from his waterbottle, standing up, and going back closer to Ben to continue dancing, but as Ben turned towards him and sighed, Joe frowned, his stomach turning a bit. “Eurgh.” he muttered while taking Ben’s hands again, who exhaled through his nose again, but also starting the dancing back up. “What now.” He asked now, and once again Joe leaned away from him, this time for a different reason though, looking almost a bit disgusted. “Are you trying to die for real on stage or why do you smoke so damn much?” He scrunched his nose, and Ben gave him a fake grin. “Aw Mazzello, you care about me now? Thought you were all about authenticity.” Joe rolled his eyes, stepping a bit away again, not even realizing that he stopped dancing again. “Yeah, but I’m more about not coughing my own lungs out after our kiss scenes!” Ben stepped back a little now too, and this time, both of them got red. Ben got a weird feeling in his stomach again, and this time it certainly wasn’t victory. There was a bit of silence now as Joe looked away a bit embarrassedly. They had avoided *that* subject very carefully until now, but now with his dumb sudden slip of tongue the atmosphere made his stomach turn as well, not just from the cigarette smell this time.  
“You know what, I- I think we’re good with practicing for now. Maybe next time if you’d actually let me get near you, this would work out a bit, atleast. So much for me not wanting to practice.” He muttered the last part out, hurrying to get his stuff together to leave before Joe saw how red his face was. He was done. “Are you fucking kidding me??” Joe asked incredulously, but Ben had already left the room. “SO MUCH for not being rightfully angry, you asshole.” Joe huffed out to him despite him being gone already, and he packed his own stuff with a huff to go brood in his room. And maybe call Rami to complain about Ben again.

That was the first and last attempt at practicing together. Lucky for both of their tempers, the days after that there were much more empty rooms, and even during class instead of glaring daggers at each other, they just ignored each other. Joe didn’t even feel mostly angry, it was the awkwardness that overpowered that with ease right now. Even thinking of kissing Ben made him feel- whatever the fuck he was feeling, he couldn’t describe it. But it wasn’t good. Instead he couldn’t help but save his daggers for the teacher whenever she had her back turned. Joe had no idea what had gotten into her to put him and Ben in partner roles. As LOVERS. Was she trying to see her academy burn down or something? Internally, Joe knew he was maybe exaggerating a bit with his disgruntlement towards his teacher right now, but since thinking of Ben made him think of the kiss, he had to redirect his anger somewhere for now.

Even after two days had passed, Joe still felt awkward about it. He didn’t even know why. Of course being forced to kiss Ben, multiple times, was a big deal, but he didn’t understand why he felt so awkward about it rather than angry. He was so occupied with embarrassment when thinking about it, he couldn’t even think of any side comments when he saw Ben in the halls or something, where they usually passed some sort of annoyed look or something if they were currently angry with each other. But this time, they were just avoiding each other. The tension felt maybe even thicker than normal, and Joe had way too many questions on his mind about it. So many in fact that he didn’t even realize it was Tuesday. Still lost in his own head, he followed his usual classmates for the group classes, not even realizing this wasn’t where he was supposed to be, the groups had been reworked just for ensemble now- he only realized when Mrs. Platzhalter called him out on it, a little confused as to why Joe was standing in her classroom. “Oh, sorry, wrong room.” Joe replied absentmindedly, leaving again, and instead heading to the room across, the empty one where he’d practiced the last two days. He shook his head as if that was going to help him focus, and pulled out his papers again, leafing through them as he started to stretch with one leg up on the barre. “Where is this damn timetable..” he muttered to himself- and found it. Oh. “Fuck.” He muttered, wide eyed and suddenly much more focused as he realized what day it was. Before he even knew to react, the door behind him already opened. “Joseph? There you are! Why aren’t you and Ben together in the assigned room? I’ve been waiting for ten minutes for you to show me what you’ve got so far, we made an appointment!” His teacher said, as Joe whipped his head back, quickly removing his leg from the barre and stuffing his papers in his bag again. “Oh, right, um.. Ben is.. I don’t know where he is.” He admitted, and the teacher frowned, looking disappointed, almost as if she already knew what was going on. “You two should be practicing right now. Why aren’t you.” Joe felt himself shrink a little. “Because, uh.. we’ve been focusing on our solo routines first to get them down, to get a feel of the characters-“ The teacher very much looked unconvinced, and Joe knew that she hadn’t believed a single word- he didn’t blame her. “Practice. NOW!” She went, and Joe flinched at the sudden change of tone as he hurriedly grabbed his stuff, following after her, embarrassed yet again.

“Benjamin! Why the hell are you on the loose too, you both come with me right now!” She shouted into the gym, where, unsurprisingly, Ben was, looking like a deer in headlights as he saw the teacher in the doorway, with Joe in her coat-tails. He packed up equally as quick and did as told, but him and Joe once again evaded eye contact, all the way into the room where today, they were supposed to show off what they had “practiced” so far so the teacher could make comments and suggestions. Somehow, Ben already had a hunch what kind of comments it was gonna be. “Good. Now that we are finally both here, I expect you two to warm up, and then get started. We have wasted enough time.”  
Well shit.


	5. SCENE V. Another practice room in the academy. Filled with tension.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting around practicing was one thing, but.. how much of a chance would they have to evade a very certain part of it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pumping these out I'm feeling amazing omg 😳 enjoy!!
> 
> I feel like this one is shorter than the previous one, which I apologize for. But I think the content might make up for that 👀

Joe felt himself grow more anxious as he warmed up. They literally had *nothing*. And what concerned him, he’d even been too caught up in the kiss-comment all Sunday and Monday to try and come up with a way to *pretend* he had practiced with Ben. But this was all Ben’s fault anyway! He was the problem, at the root of it. Joe *could* have cooperated more, yes, but that would’ve been easier too if Ben hadn’t been the first one to be a dick four years ago. What other choice did Joe have?? Let himself get bullied? Absolutely not. And he also definitely wasn’t resentful. 

Either way, he didn’t think they could drag out stretching for much longer before it got obvious. He let his leg slide off of the barre, Ben finishing up just then aswell. “Alright then, just show me what you have going so far for the first dance.” The teacher said, leaning back to press play on her big speaker, and Ben let out a big sigh as he and Joe stepped closer to dance. Atleast this time he didn’t smell like cigarettes this time, Joe thought to himself, gritting his teeth as Ben touched his waist once again. 

It was a disaster. At least this time they didn’t bicker as much, beind watched by the teacher and all, but the annoyed groans and grunts and daggers glared and maybe intentional hard grips of a hand or hip spoke volumes. The lifts didn’t work because Joe didn’t put the effort in, still trying to somehow get away from Ben’s hands despite them being the only thing holding him up, and the spins worked just as little because Ben put about the same amount of enthusiasm into helping Joe keep momentum and balance. Working towards the end of the choreo, it suddenly brought them chest to chest. Both knew that that had a very important reason, and paused, but as neither made even a millimeter of a move into the kiss they were supposed to be sharing, Ben just looked away, continuing to lead Joe into the next move. 

They were both glad when the damn music finally stopped playing, and Joe near threw Ben’s hand out of his own, Ben just rolling his eyes and crossing his arms in front of his chest again. The teacher looked between them, and she did not look impressed. After a small moment of what might have been incredulity at what had just been displayed in front of her, she cleared her throat. “No. Try again.”

Joe couldn’t help a quiet exasperated grunt, the boys turning towards each other again. He was so done with this. “This time I will be giving instructions. Maybe that will also help distract you from mentally beating each other up.” The teacher remarked, Ben looking at her and almost saying something, but she just pressed the play button down almost demonstratively, raising an eyebrow at Ben. Ben only mentally rolled his eyes as he assumed staring position with Joe again, realizing that maybe it wouldn’t be the smartest to snap at the teacher, too.

Still, the instructions were not really helping. It’s not like Ben didn’t know how to dance the choreography, or wasn’t listening to the teacher, but it was hard to make those a priority when Joe once again was tense as a rock and trying to slip out of his fingers again. “Christ, should I bring lube next time to make it easier for you?” Ben muttered annoyedly in his ear when they had another very close move, almost cheek to cheek, and Joe only knew to retaliate by subtly shoving his chin further into Ben’s shoulder, into a spot he knew would hit a sore hurt, getting a small hiss of pain from Ben. “Doubt you gotta use it for anything else anyway.” He muttered back just as quiet, Ben feeling the anger starting to reach boiling point inside him again, making sure to dig his fingers into a hurtful spot by Joe’s thigh at the next move opportunity where he had to hold on to it, Joe making a small pained sound this time.

Oh, it was on. It was almost ironic, the more they were trying to sabotage the other, the more it made them dance better themselves. If you’d told someone they had actually been cast as enemies, it wouldn’t even have been a half bad performance, with how close they got with each move to try and somehow get back at each other “without the teacher noticing”. It was only once again towards the end of the runthrough where they snapped out of it, for the kiss moment where Ben had already grabbed Joe’s neck hard to dig into his sinews, Joe trying to move his head away at the irritating pain- and once again, it was nearly comical, both of their eyes went wide as they froze for a second, and suddenly stepped much further apart to finish the rest of their choreo awkwardly. You could have fitted a whole other pair between them now as opposed to the chest-to-chest they’d have developed somewhere during the dance. The same theoretical person from before, if they would have thought this was an enemy dance, might have also thought that the tension wasn’t solely rancourous.. but NO. Ben hated Joe. Joe hated Ben. That’s all there was to interpret, and unsurprisingly, the teacher did so, too. She sighed, crossed her legs the other way on the table she sat on, and pushed her glasses up.  
“Well, at least it’s a start. It seems that you two didn’t forget *completely* how to dance ballet. But there is absolutely zero chemistry.”

See? Joe was right.

“Which there should be at least a little bit of, considering this is the scene where you two are supposed to convey falling in love with each other on sight.”

Oh. Right.

The teacher stood up, walking over to her speaker again, winding the song back and pressing play once again. “One more time, with instructions, and the kiss this time.” she said, and this time Ben had to speak up. “Ma’am’, can’t we reserve that for the performances-“ – “Ben, no. I think you have both done enough defying for today, and you both always freeze up around that moment and fall entirely out of rhythm. Tell me you didn’t actually think you could just not kiss?” She raised her eyebrows at them again, as Joe looked absolutely horrified. “Ma’am, you can’t expect us to actually-“ he trailed off, as the teacher paused the music again, as nobody was actually dancing to it yet, anyway. “Obviously. You both auditioned for a role knowing you’d have to kiss someone. If you had those restraints, you should have thought of them weeks ago, and I am not giving you special treatment. Now go on, before this CD breaks with how much I have to rewind.” She said, and it was clear it was her final word. Joe exhaled slowly through his nose. You don’t want to be a tree in your senior project Joe, just do it. It’s totally not a big deal. As long as nobody sees. He threw a checking look towards the door and the glass panels next to it, but it still didn’t ease his mind. 

He heard the music starting again, and he and Ben turned towards each other almost robotically. If they weren’t tense before, now it was like you were trying to bend solid tree trunks. “C’mon now!” The teacher prompted them, and they snapped together, now not looking at each other at all as they roboted around each other. Now you could’ve thought it was a comedic ballet.  
As they came chest to chest again, Joe felt his heart knocking so hard in his chest he could feel it in his throat, as Ben just stared at him like a deer in headlights again. Who was gonna make the first move? Could they somehow convincingly only pretend to? Was he supposed to keep his eyes closed or open them? Was he supposed to lean up or was Ben gonna lean do- “The kiss, maudit!” The teacher cut his thoughts off with a sigh, shaking her head, and Ben’s brain drew blank as he leaned forward, squeezing his eyes shut as he pressed his lips against Joe’s. 

Joe almost stumbled backwards in surprise, but as he felt Ben’s arm pull his waist closer to prevent him from falling, he felt himself almost get angry again, furrowing his eyebrows, closing his eyes, and pressing back into the kiss even harder.   
Ben’s eyes flew open as he made a sound of surprise, all of the sudden losing most of his force into the kiss as Joe in turn pulled him closer with a tight grip on his shoulder. Ben felt his stomach turn, and he felt very sick all of the sudden, his face lit up like a bloody Christmas ornament as Joe pulled back, looking at Ben with a trace of disgust in his smile. It stung, for some reason, it felt like on top of all Ben had gotten a punch in the gut aswell. Now they were just staring at each other again, and he felt like he might have to make a run for the next toilet to lose his lunch.

“Well, it was a start atleast..” The teacher broke the tense silence, and finally Joe and Ben let go of each other. Ben wasn’t sure if he could breathe better now or if he was actually holding his breath. “What the fuck was that?” He muttered, and it felt like it was more directed at himself than Joe, actually. Joe only took a few steps back, still just looking at Ben like he wanted to kill him.  
The teacher paused the music, stepping between them before they would be at each other’s throats, she feared. “Guys, I’m glad you are atleast understanding the choreography, but that was hardly a kiss, that was an attack, Ben. It needs to be soft and tender. You two clearly need to practice all of this more. Or at all, that is!” She spoke up carefully, having a hand each on Ben’s and Joe’s chests to keep them apart, just in case.   
Joe felt himself boil over before he could help it. “Last time I tried to practice with him he just left on me!” He spat, so loud it was almost shouting as he once again glared at Ben, his eyes angrier than they had been all day. Ben’s stomach was still not giving him any peace, but he felt himself get a little angry too. He was not gonna let Joe blame him for that. “Yeah! Because all you were doing was moaning around!” – “Oh, like you into the kiss just now?” Joe crossed his arms, and Ben felt his gut riot again as he almost felt lightheaded for a second. He turned entirely red again, and it didn’t help with trying to save face right now as he tried not to for some reason actually panic right now. It was just a stupid comment. He might have been caught off guard by Joe kissing back so hard, but it had NOT been a moan. Not in a million years. 

“Fuck- off, you were pressing against my lips like you were trying to leave dents, it fucking hurt!” - “Well judging by the sound you just made you were about to dent somewhere entirely else!” The two boys had stepped so close again to each other by now, they were half squishing the teacher between them, who pushed them apart again, having to intervene. “Young men! Would you stop with the childish insults already, we are all grown ups here and you have been at this academy for YEARS. If you are both SO determined to just be insulting each other all the time, why did you audition for these roles in the first place knowing the other is just as good and had just the same skill and chance of getting the role?” Ben went quiet and stepped back, looking away from Joe again to try and hide the fact he was still red, but Joe didn't even notice. He was inevitably at his breaking point.

“I didn't fucking audition to be Juliet!”   
It had bursted out of him as he shouted at the teacher, who looked surprised herself, Joe still looking angry- before he realized what he just did. Their facial expressions exchanged slowly as Joe went pale, wide eyed, as the teacher looked proper mad. There was a small moment of silence as she looked at Joe like this, as if she was giving him an opportunity to internalize how he just fucked up, before she spoke up, almost equally as loud and stern. “You are BOTH suspended from classes for a WEEK, and I’ll make it longer if you two don't finally pull yourselves together and start taking this ballet seriously. Take your newfound free time to practice in Pas Des Deux, or you will also both be suspended from the *entire* ballet.”   
Ben looked like he was about to speak up in protest- it was Joe’s slip of tongue, not his!- but the teacher didn't even let him finish opening his mouth as she looked at him to continue. “And don't EITHER of you dare to try and pin this on the other. You are both equally at fault for this. Do you think I don't know you two?” She only got silence from the boys again, and so glares between them again before turning around to grab her stuff. “Practice is dismissed.” 

She headed towards the door with visible fury in her step, but slowed down as she reached for the door handle, retracting her hand for one more second as she turned back around. She already looked calmer, still disappointed, but less angry, and her face might have softened even a bit more as she looked at the two equally shocked boys one more time. “I know you two would dance excellently together if you could get over your differences, it would be better than both of you have ever danced with anyone else at this academy. I mean it, and I know it. So please, don't make me have you both not dance at all.” She ended, and left, the door closing softer than it had been when she first entered the room.

Joe knew he was the one who had fucked up that last bit just now. He didn't know how he lost his cool this hard, but that one hadn’t been Ben. He threw a careful look at the latter, who seemed to be internally boiling, Joe growing a little smaller and maybe even a little scared. Ben caught his look from the corner of his eyes, before looking away again. “I'm not gonna fucking beat you up, Mazzello.” He scoffed, and Joe was about to open his mouth in reply, but Ben continued. “If you shut the fuck up right now, that is.”   
As much as Joe honored his pride, he honored his intact body more. He looked back away and closed his mouth- despite internally fuming aswell. Ben was still just standing there, so Joe took the first move to go and pick up his stuff he’d put in the corner earlier, but suddenly Ben looked up at him afterall. “Tomorrow. Right at the usual start of class. You will BE here, in this room.”  
While Joe might have still been a little bit out of it from getting yelled at, he was absolutely not going to give Ben the idea he could just threaten Joe and get him to shut up forever then. “*I* will.” He replied, giving him another sharp look, and getting an annoyed one back from Ben, before leaving the room.


End file.
